Shackleford will run in Travers, not the Woodward

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Trainer Dale Romans didn’t wait very long to make a decision on where Preakness winner Shackleford is going to run next.

Romans, sitting in a golf court outside his barn on the Saratoga backstretch Sunday morning, said Shackleford will make his next start in the $1 million Travers Stakes here on Aug. 27.

“The Shack is ready to attack,” Romans said. “We’re going to the Travers, for sure. I listened to everybody and heard what they had to say and then I did what I want. We wanted to weigh all our options, but the Travers is the Travers. It’s the most important race of the summer. I think we can win it, so we should be in it.”

Last Monday, following Shackleford’s second place finish in the Haskell Invitational, Romans had kicked around the idea of running Shackleford in the $750,000 Woodward Stakes on closing weekend here. That would be the colt’s first start against older horses.

The Woodward is also 1 1/8 miles; the Travers is 1 1/4 miles. Shackleford finished fourth in the Kentucky Derby (1 1/4 miles) and was fifth in the Belmont (1 1/2 miles).

“It (Travers) is a little short for him, but I think he can handle it,” Romans said with a laugh. “I don’t think the mile and a quarter is an issue; I don’t think so at all. He won at 1 3/16 miles (Preakness), the best race of his life, so he only has to go another sixteenth of a mile. I thought he ran a super race in the Derby and he will never run a mile and a half again.”